September 04, 2005

• I'm less inclined to believe that the US really is going to war against citizens of New Orleans, rather I percieve it as trying to put down a huge force to make sure there is near total security. Some of the threat of armed gangs may be exaggerated, but I was watching one newsman interview cops on the top of a precinct Thursday night when someone started shooting and they had to take cover. There were reports of dozens of incidents of gunfire at night in the first days after the flood. And there are many, many reports of looting of many, many stores. There is a large security problem. So the way I see it, the desire is to put so many troops in there that they can make a security sweep of the city and ensure that the remaining people that need to be rescued and the rescuers are not in danger, and furthermore, that they feel safe. But Holy Bog, what an unfortunate choice of words to describe what they need to do.
• "But when they arrived, they did not find marauding mobs. They did not come under fire. They found people who had lost everything in the storm and, since then, their dignity." (Met by Despair, Not Violence: LA Times)
• I never hear of marauding mobs, that does sound like an unfortunate exaggeration. There were small gangs, AFAICT. And let's remember, the guy in charge, General Russel Honore, is of African-American ancestry and from Louisiana himself. It was reported on the news that he told his troops to point their weapons down or sling them on their backs, saying something to the effect: "We're not in Iraq". He sounds like a sensible guy.
• Really grotesquely freakishly bad word choice. I hope the intent isn't where the words are at.
• un-, I heard that about Honore, too. He seems to know what he's doing. (I hope!)
• Keep an eye on the Interdictor LJ; he's gone from pleading for active duty soldiers to take back the streets to relieved, but slightly wary of what he now calls "hyper-suspicious, armed authorities."
• Why do you assume anything but the worst from the Administration's handling of anything? Of course, they're going in to kill people. Including a lot of innocent people. What else can they do?
• Assuming the worst? Well, sometimes the government does the worst by overrecting. Remember Waco? Remember the Move revolutionaries in Philadelphia in the late 70s? The cops burned down an entire city block just to kill them. And their kids. This Gen. Gary Jones needs to have his peepee spanked for saying what he did. It was insensitive, stupid, and inflammatory. I am just glad that the guy in charge (Honore) seems like a decent guy, like I expect most guardsmen are.
• Actually, I have no sympathy for Interdictor - his constant ranting about lawlessness, and people like him, is exactly what has made those soldiers so hyper-suspicious. Read the article linked above - these soldiers went in afraid for their lives from STARVING people. This was after reporters had been constantly in and out, talking about how orderly everyone was, how the danger was exagerated. Heck, in the article above, the police got the "looters" (aka people trying to escape for their lives with a stolen car) to start helping with the evacuation, ferrying out trapped people. Some dangerous criminal element they were. I am so bloody angry right now, at everyone who has worsened this whole situation by focusing in on the few gunshots they heard, or some rumour. Yes, the first helicopter at the conference centre was swarmed - those people were frightened and desparate and just wanted to get to the water. But because everyone kept talking about "oh, my god! the black/poor/whatever people are DANGEROUS!" no bus drivers would go in to help them out. People DIED - three babies and I don't know how many others DIED - because of fucking idiots like Interdicter. They let babies die, because their safety was more important. I don't know what I would have done, no one does, but I hope that when told there were people starving and there was something I could do that I would try. But as it was, I just had to sit here, watching, nothing I could do but send money to aid agencies that weren't even allowed in. If Interdicter is such a brave man, why didn't he take all that knowhow that kept those servers up and go and actually help some living things. Fuck the data. Just fuck it. I hope he gets fucking thrown to the ground and cavity searched. See how he likes it. He was useless in this whole travesty. Sorry, that's strong language. But I am so angry. On preview - General Honore is a good man. He was adament that the guns be pointed down - he was yelling at New Orleans police (not actually under his authority) to get their guns down. And they (finally) listened. He didn't really explain why the delay, other than to prevaricate about the difficulty, but he is a military man, and thus really isn't suposed to say anything about the government, good or bad. (And I think that's a good rule for the military.)
• From what I've read and seen on TV, I think there was a legimate security problem that justifies sending in lots of troops. I'm not talking about people taking drinks and food or diapers for their kids. I'm talking about video of smashed ATMS, of people taking consumer goods, guns from gun stores, the eyewitness accounts of murder, rape, and carjacking, and the police from one precinct reporting a dozen armed skirmishes a night. Not to mention hundreds of NOPD officers quitting. But I also don't doubt that there were exaggerations and rumors flying around. People were very scared and uncertain, without any real news, and that's when rumors happen. Having all those troops in there should be a good thing. After the major evacuation is finished, I really hope they are going to scour through the rest of the city for the very last few folks stranded or abandoned. They can probably still save a bunch of lives, but time is running out.
• People smashing ATMs and taking consumer goods are greedy, but not necessarily dangerous. I could do all of those things easily in that situation, and I don't have a gun. There are some gangs there, and a lot of armed people (though I've seen way more photographs of armed white vigilantes - actually, I haven't seen any photographs of armed men other than white people with big "you loot, we shoot" signs) - but the point is that the danger was much less than people like Interdicter said, reporters like Tony Zumbado (one of the first on the scene at the convention centre) said over and over again that it was safe to come in to there - and still help didn't go in. There are people's lives now, gone because of all those rumours. Also, everyone should see this thread from Metafilter - "From a New York journalist's description of the days after the flood:

  I saw persons take watches from dead men's jackets and brutally tore finger-rings from the hands of women. The ruffians also climbed into the overturned houses and ransacked the rooms, taking whatever they thought valuable.

  Sound familiar? This report about the Johnstown Flood was also filled with stories of "minority savegery", drunken Hungarians at the time that eventually turned out to be completely untrue or wildly exaggerated, such as the rescue helicoptor being shot at."
• Quote from a soldier: ""They're clapping on one side, because they see the security. On this side they're not clapping, they're hungry and thirsty," Richards said. "It's like Baghdad all over again ... The only thing different about this is there's no car bombs, no IEDs, nobody shooting at you."
• From the LA Times:

  Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commanser of the military emergency relief effort, said he understoof the disappointment expressed by evacuees toward relief authorities, But the news media, he said, had exaggerated the dangers.

• I haven't seen any reason to believe the helicopter had been shot at. Unless they have a bullet hole in the helicopter, it's more reasonable to assume either there had been gunfire about something else totally unrelated and the people on the helicopter just assumed they were being shot at, or there was some loud noise (not gunfire) and the people on the helicopter assumed they were being shot at. The most incredulous scenario would be the helicopter being shot at, and that kind of claim is going to require some serious amount of proof for support.
• I've read about the Johnstown Flood before, and I don't think we really have the same situation. Yes, there have been rumors and exaggerations. But we have to acknowledge the violence we did see on video, and the eye-witness accounts, and the people interviewed who said they did not feel safe. Murders, rapes, carjackings and random gunfire did occur, and the cops were just not able to do anything about it. We don't know exactly how many occured, but that is still a bad security situation. So while Interdictor may have been blowing the scale of violence out of proportion, we can't deny that there was violence and the cops couldn't handle it. The the truth is probably somewhere in between. And to mention it one more time, I find that link about cops quitting very sad and disturbing. I do believe things were very bad there to cause that. I do think it shows they need a large troop presence. It is my hope, though, that their mission will be one of projecting an image of authority and safety, and of providing further rescue and searching for survivors, which is still needed on a massive scale. If it turns into a situation where they become oppressive and confrontational, like an army of occupation, it would be sickening. I don't expect that to happen, but I do recognize there's an outside chance that it still could, because of the desparate situation. I continue to be somewhat optimistic that now the government has gotten its shit together and sent in Honore who has the authority and ability to help those people left in the city. Time will tell.
• Did I miss some news about Congress repealing the Posse Comitatus Act?
• /goes off to be anti-governmental
• Did I miss some news about Congress repealing the Posse Comitatus Act? I don't think so. Why? The Guard is in there at the request of Governor Blanco, as it is supposed to work. The guy on the ground in charge of the military is General Honore. This is not martial law, even though the mayor called it that. General Honore takes orders from the Governor in this situation.
• Newsflash: Desperate human beings will do whatever they must to survive! It's amazing how, under our current government, seemingly axiomatic statements about human behavior have been completely forgotten. I suppose the administration expected these people to quietly starve \ drown in stoic silence, as is their duty as a freedom-loving American. When you leave a large group of people in festering poverty for this long, while doing nothing to try to get them back into the system... this is the result.
• The guy on the ground in charge of the military is General Honore General Honore is regular Army, not National Guard. His chain of command runs from Washington, not the Governor.
• I don't think the Guard went in there in response to people taking food and water. I think Guard went in there because there were numerous incidents, like where people were shooting guns inside the Convention Center at night, and it was pitch black and the NOPD cop they were interviewing on TV said they couldn't shoot back because they couldn't see and the place was full of innocent bystanders. The cops were overwhelmed and could not provide security to the people from the assholes who chose to take advantage of a dire situation, even if there were a small number of assholes. Just this morning mayor Nagin said one of his top priorities is letting his cops and firefighters stand down, get rest, find their families, and get some mental health help because they were stressed beyond the breaking point, including a couple of reported suicides. The entire issue of a populace assumed to be criminal when they just want to stay alive only really comes up when that idiot Gen. Jones says it's going to be like Somalia. I've been watching the news pretty steadily, and as far as I can tell the situation is nothing like that on the ground. There was a news report that in Oklahoma the refugees were going to be met by 300 National Guard and frisked for weapons. That seems like an overreaction to me, and it is probably due to the "violent populace" hysteria going around. But as far as I know that has not happened with the tens of thousands sent to Texas. Let's hope that cool heads prevail. There are still thousands to be saved in New Orleans alone. Bog only knows what is going on in rural areas.
• His chain of command runs from Washington, not the Governor. Is that a problem? I do not know the details of the all the chain of command, but it is a fact that the Governor requested the Guard, and requested that the President's help. Even if Honore does not report to Gov. Blanco, it's not like this is Martial Law. I saw on TV Gov. Blanco called for 40,000 troops. Perhaps there aren't enough Guard for that and regular army is needed too. I don't see what the problem is.
• Just saw a retired General on TV that said active duty military were called out for Hurricanes Andrew and Ivan too, so apparently we aren't dealing with a special case here.
• I want to find out more about the cops, because I think they may have been harshly portrayed. I posted, at the time, that 60% of cops in some areas had deserted, which is what was reported on CNN. In the interview un refers to above, the top cop said that his cops not already at work were having just as difficult a time as everybody else in getting out of their homes, and the streets were just as flooded as they were for everybody else. So they hadn't deserted - many simply were trapped and couldn't get to work. I hadn't really thought about it, but if you're an emergency worker, you can't just pack up and leave the city like other folks. And also the reports of cops looting - they didn't have food or water either. The commander said some of them were sleeping outside, and many had no ammunition. What's surprising to me now, if these things are true, that so many stuck it out. The two suicides the commander talked about? One killed himself when he found out his wife was dead. I'm not sure under what circumstances his wife was killed but it's not hard to figure out how that would affect you if you've been a cop in New Orleans for the last hellish week. Sadly, I think there will be more suicides. Imagine. You work under the worst conditions imaginable, hungry, thirsty, sleeping rough, out of ammunition knowing the assholes out there are armed to the tits. You leave your families to do your job. No National Guard shows up for days and days. You're being told that your fellow cops are deserting, true or not, and that you aren't doing enough. You don't know what's happened to your wife. When the troops finally arrive and take over the job they should have been doing days before, you finally get word of your family. And your wife is dead. That is hideous.
• Does anyone know how much a New Orleans cop gets paid? A few years ago I belive that the starting pay was $18K per year. This was assumed to be a key reason why the cops were far from the city's finest. Also, Houston will have to give over the title "Bagdad on the Bayou".
• It's all hideous. A few more horrifying stories have been posted on Metafilter today, and there is no end in sight.
• Along the same lines as EarWax, not to disparage all of the NO's finest, but I do believe that one of the large contributing factors in the mayor's election was the prevelant corruption in the police department (along with pretty much every other level of government). Low pay didn't help (Even in NYC, one of the finest police towns, starting pay isn't that much north of $28,000. Which was a shock to me. At $28,000, I'd have figured every rookie cop to be crooked.) That being said, it appears that those that stuck it out had no communications, no support, had to fend for food and water on their own, and in general were left to twist in the wind along with everyone else. Now that they have some support from the National Guard perhaps they can get a well deserved rest, and return back to some semblance of normalcy (ie: professionalism). Of course, if the lack of any sort of communication within the beaurocracy continues, and the idiots running the show are still clueless, then you can dump in any many troops as you want, there will still be chaos.
• For sure, New Orleans police have had a horrible reputation; two of their officers ended up on death row over first degree murder beefs in the nineties. There was a huge uproar and a serious effort to improve the force. What I'm afraid of is that maybe for the first time in many years the cops of New Orleans are decent folks who did an amazing job with what they had, saw some horrible, horrible shit, and yet are still being torn down at their most vulnerable hour because of what was done in the past. The suicide and the PTSD fallout from this is going to be as hard - and in some cases harder - on cops and other emergency and medical workers as it is on the people they tried to help. It seems to me that this is very likely a case where shit should roll uphill, not down.
• Holy Shit Initial reports of police shooting contractors doing repair work dead.
• Not sure if the above report is true now. There was a shooting incident reported on TV news that sounded similar, but it was criminals shooting at Army Corp of Engineers contractors trying to work on the levees.